Student Confidence as a Measure of Learning in an Undergraduate Principles of Horticultural Science Course
Three to five student learning outcomes (SLOs) were written for each of seven units for the Principles of Horticultural Science course, the foundation course for all nine specializations within the undergraduate horticulture program at Kansas State University. The SLOs were then used as the framework for development of the course. A pre- and post-assessment was given to the students enrolled in the course in the fall semesters of 2005 through 2008 in an effort to assess if the SLOs were being met. The 50-item assessment asked students to record their confidence in ability to do something reflective of the SLOs such as “distinguish between transpiration and respiration” or “write a scientific plant name.” The comparison of the student-reported confidence at the start of the course and their academic performance in the course were not correlated. Students' reported confidence at the conclusion of the course was correlated with their academic performance in 3 of the 4 years that were examined. Because confidence was correlated with academic performance in the course and a course would be considered a domain-specific construct, it is more likely that self-efficacy rather than confidence was impacted as the students moved through the course.